New York City Officials Announce Efforts to Fight Zika Virus

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Dr. Herminia Palacio, New York City’s deputy mayor for health and human services, left, and Dr. Mary T. Bassett, the city’s health commissioner, discussed the Zika virus at City Hall on Thursday.CreditCreditChang W. Lee/The New York Times

With a growing number of countries throughout the Americas reporting increased transmission of the Zika virus, New York City heath officials announced plans on Thursday to try to prevent the pathogen from establishing a foothold in the city.

Millions of people around the world have been infected with Zika, and in most cases, its effects are mild and not life-threatening. But the disease has caused alarm because of an apparent link to microcephaly, a condition in which babies are born with unusually small heads and neurological problems.

At a news conference at City Hall, Dr. Herminia Palacio, the deputy mayor for health and human services, and Dr. Mary T. Bassett, the city’s health commissioner, said that at least seven people had received a diagnosis of Zika in New York State, three of them in the city. All had recently returned from countries where the epidemic had been spreading.

One of those patients is pregnant, officials said on Thursday, but citing privacy concerns, they declined to provide details about her travel history or the condition of her fetus.

Dr. Bassett said there was virtually no risk of someone contracting the mosquito-borne virus in the city at this time, because the mosquito season in New York does not begin until April, and because the species spreading the disease does not live in the region.

But she said it was critical that health care providers be diligent in taking a travel history of patients, particularly pregnant women, and that they test pregnant women who show symptoms of the illness.

“We really want to get the message out to women who are pregnant or considering becoming pregnant that they should postpone travel to countries where there is Zika,” Dr. Bassett said.

The World Health Organization said on Thursday that it was so alarmed by the explosive spread of the virus that it would hold a meeting next week to consider declaring a global health emergency.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has warned pregnant women against travel to 24 countries, mostly in the Caribbean and Latin America, where the virus is spreading. The roster of affected countries is growing near-daily.

Zika is a mosquito-transmitted infection related to dengue, yellow fever and West Nile virus and is spread by a species of mosquito known as Aedes aegypti. Though that mosquito is not present in New York, a similar species, the Asian tiger, could pose a threat of transmission, officials said.

In response to West Nile virus and other mosquito-borne illnesses, New York City has built robust infrastructure to track and kill the insects.

Dr. Bassett said the city would build on “the infrastructure that we already have and extend it to this species.”

There was only one case of Zika reported in New York City before this year, Dr. Bassett said, and until now, the disease had not been considered a great threat because of its usually mild symptoms. Only one-fifth of those infected even develop symptoms, which can include fever, a rash, joint pain and red eyes.

The C.D.C. has recommended that health care providers test anyone who has traveled to an area of known Zika transmission and shows symptoms. New York State has a laboratory that can conduct the tests, but getting results takes several days.

Given the lack of a rapid test and the number of pregnant women who travel between New York and the affected countries, widespread screening could strain the capacity of both state and federal labs, though no such problem has yet been reported.

The C.D.C. has also recommended that pregnant women who have traveled to affected regions undergo regular ultrasound scans to see if their fetuses are developing microcephaly or calcification of the skull. There is no vaccine or specific treatment for the virus.

A version of this article appears in print on , on Page A24 of the New York edition with the headline: City Officials Announce Efforts to Fight Zika Virus. Order Reprints | Today’s Paper | Subscribe